Hoenn, the beginning!
by Druiette
Summary: This is the story of Dane and Hammond, 2 best friends and rivals from Dewford town in the Hoenn region. Read along as they make their journey across the region to become pokemon trainers!
1. The Fieldtrip

This is the story of Dane and Hammond, 2 best friends and rivals from Dewford town in the Hoenn region. Read along as they make their journey across the region to become pokemon trainers! (Planning on doing their entire journey, perhaps even across multiple regions. But lets start with Hoenn. First time writing, please be gentle. Criticism and reviews are welcome! i want to do this in my spare time and maybe ill get good at it! Now have fun reading chapter 1 :D)

Journal of Dane and Hammond, day 0

Dear journal,  
Today was a crazy day at school. Because it's one of the last days of school the pokemon professor was gonna come by and tell us about being a pokemon trainer! Our class isnt that big, since we live in Dewford town. It's just Maggy, Tristan, Hammond and I. Hammond has been my best friend for atleast 10 years or so, We both wanna become really strong pokemon trainers and travel across the entire world! Our teacher doesn't think we can accomplish this and should just start a career in fishing like all the other kids in Dewford. But we believe we can do it! I can already hear our names spread across the world: Dane and Hammond! World champions! Now about my crazy day, this is how it went:

It was a sunny day in Dewford town, And since we didnt have much to learn anymore we decided to go to the harbor and wait for professor Birch and suprise him. The rest of our class didnt care much about him but me and Hammond we're so excited! "I can't wait to see him and tell him of our plans to become trainers!" Hammond said and jumped in the air, Hammond was always excited when it comes to pokemon. I cant remember a day where he didnt tell me about the adventures he wanted to have. "Hey teach, when is the professor gonna be here?" Maggy asked with a slight annoyance in her voice. "He should be here any minute now Maggy" HOOOOOOOONNKKKK! The 4 teenagers jumped into the air as the loud noise trembled their bodies. "There is the boat!" The teacher said with excitement in his voice. We all turned towards the sea and saw a large boat with alot of people on the open air deck waving at the people in the harbor. "Quick look for the professor!" I said to Hammond and we glanced across the decks to look for the pokemon professor. After a while Hammond looked to me and said with a soft voice: "Uhm Dane? Do you know what the professor looks like?". "Wait i thought you saw the professor once Hammond?" I said suprised. "Well, i may have lied about that." We both let out a big sigh and went to ask the teacher. "Well, he always wears a white labcoat, Has a bushy beard and brown hair. And no matter what weather, He always wears his green shorts." While we were talking to the teacher, the boat already was unloading the huge amount of people. Normally Dewford is a quiet and calm city, except in the summer. Then all the people from the big cities come here to chill on the beach. So that explained the huge amount of people. "The first one to spot the professor can talk to him first!" Hammond yelled and started to look for Birch. There were alot of people walking past our group, some people walking toward their family and some walking towards the taxi's waiting for people to hop in. But nobody who looked like the person the teacher described. Eventually everyone got off the boat, But no professor. "What if he didn't want to come?" Hammond said almost sounding dissapointed. "I'm sure we have just missed him walking by us Hammond" The teacher said comforting. "Sorry im late everyone!" We looked towards the boat and saw nobody coming off. "Behind you guys!", We all quickly turned around and saw a man with a strawhat and a coconut in his hand. "Ah professor, great to finally meet you!" Our teacher said and shaked his hand. "I took a boat earlier to have some time to stock up on supplies for our field trip today!" The professor said with a smile. "FIELD TRIP!?" we all shouted in sync. "That's right, A field trip! Why sit around in a hot classroom while i can show you actual pokemon on the beach!" Dane and i jumped up and down out of excitement, We we're gonna see actual pokemon in the wild! "Let's get moving children." the teacher said and wanting to walk towards the beach. "Not so fast mister! I have something to show the kids" the professor laughed while grabbing his bag and reaching inside. His hand was holding a pokeball. Hammond and I stared breathless at the device, Did the professor bring a pokemon for us to see? "Treecko, let's say hello!" The professor threw the ball into the air and it opened, showing a bright light coming from it. The light projected towards the floor, emerging into a treecko shape. The light got dimmer and dimmer, Until there stood a treecko before us. The pokemon looked at us with his big eyes and stood on his 2 legs. For the 15 years me and Hammond had been alive, we had actually never seen a pokemon from this close before. We still stood there breathless and looked at the professor's treecko. "Everyone, this is treecko. Treecko, meet the rest of the group for today." Treecko look happily toward us, "Treecko-Tree!" The pokemon exclaimed. "He says hello" The professor laughed. "He will protect us if any pokemon attack us, treecko will protect you. Right Treecko?" The pokemon nodded and spoke again: "Tree-tree-treecko!" The professor laughed and started walking toward the beach. "Just follow me ! And don't be scared to play with treecko on our way to the beach!"  
Me and Dane slowly walked towards the pokemon, nervous as we didnt know what would happen. Hammond was the first to try to touch the treecko, stroking the top of the pokemon's head. "It's so soft!" said Hammond happily. The other kids didnt care much about the treecko and followed right behind the professor, but me and Dane just had to meet this treecko. After a few cuddles and pets the pokemon started to also follow the rest of the group. "Quick let's get going Hammond" i said to my good friend, and we reunited with the group and started walking toward the Dewford beach. "Hey professor, we walk here everyday and I never see pokemon around. How are we gonna find pokemon?" asked Maggy. "Well Maggy, since the beach is crowded right now pokemon wont show up as often. and the pokemon on Dewford are really shy ive heard." What the professor said there was true, Pokemon are a rare sight on Dewford island. Most of them hide in Granite Cave at the edge of the island. "What if we cant find any pokemon on the beach professor?" Asked Hammond with a scared look on his face. "Then we're gonna have to look harder for them if we cant find them!" Laughed the professor with enthousiasm. The professor is always happy from what ive noticed, there hasnt been a sentence where he didnt burst into laughing. Not that it's a bad thing, But it gets repetitive after a whole day with the guy. After an hour of walking along the beach we couldnt find any pokemon. "Hey professor, there arent any pokemon here! Are we gonna go to Granite cave now?" asked Maggy to the professor. "Well, im afraid we're not gonna find any pokemon here, Let's head to the cave then!". From the corner of my eye i could see Hammond light up with the biggest smile in the world. We had never been inside the Granite cave, But we have heard alot of stories about the cave. Mostly stories about the horrors inside and why we should never enter it that our parents told us just to scare us off, But damn did they work. I was terrified of that cave, even if that cave was gonna be the first step of my long adventure. Eventually, we arrived at Granite cave. The entrance was a totally different thing than the rest of Dewford. Dewford was bright and sunny, But this cave was dark and haunting. "Ok everyone, I know this looks scary and you probably think we're not gonna enter this cave. But we are, since we have Treecko to protect us! So just stick with the group and then we will all be save from the pokemon that are inside. Are you all ready!" Said the professor to brighter the mood a little. Nobody responded to the professors question, but we were going in anyway, Treecko suprised Hammond by climbing on his shoulder to cheer him up, Which worked since Hammond was way more confident than the rest now. Hammond was chatting with Treecko and seemed to be having fun, But i was looking around the cave to look for any pokemon that might suprise us. There was nothing to be seen, and less to be heard. Nothing had happened so far, except from some zubat passing by us. As we went farther into the cave there the light got alot dimmer until we couldnt see anything anymore. "Uhm professor, do you have a flashlight with you or anything?" Asked Tristan. He had been quiet the entire trip, since he didnt care much about meeting pokemon. "I dont need a flashlight for that Tristan, Come out Abra!" The professor pulled another pokeball from his bag and threw it out. There stood an abra before us, floating in the air with his psychic powers. "Abra use Flash!" the professor yelled. "Abbbrraaaaaa!" the pokemon put his hands together and a bright light appeared. Suddenly the entire cave was lit up. We looked around to see what was around us, and we were just surrounded rocks like before. "Uhm professor, what is that on the ceiling?" Asked Hammond with a trembling voice. We all looked up and the ceiling above us wasnt made of rocks, but of a large dark blue and purple coating. Treecko hopped off Hammond and seemed ready to fight. "Ok everyone, dont freak out. As long as we are calm they wont wake up. Those are sleeping zubats, Alot of sleeping zubats." The professor tried to act calm, but we could see he was suprised by the huge amount of zubat above us. The zubat started to shake, It looked like the ceiling was coming down. But it was way worse, The zubat started to wake up because of abra's flash. The zubats started to fly around us in a circle, making an inpenetrable wall of flying pokemon. "Ok everyone, we're gonna have to fight ourselves out of this one. Dont worry, Me and my pokemon will protect us!" said the professor nobly. "Why dont you use treecko to battle your side of the circle and me and abra do our side, maybe you'll learn something about battling for real!" Said the professor. We stood back to back, protecting each side to protect ourselves. We could hear the professor yell commands to abra and launching attacks toward the zubats. "Hammond do something! You seem to have bonded a little bit with treecko!" I yelled to Hammond, trying to be louder than all the zubat around us. "Ok ill try, Treecko use bullet seed!" Commanded Hammond toward treecko. "Treeeeeeee-ko-ko-ko!" Treecko spewed a rain of green balls towards the wall of pokemon, blasting a hole right through and knocking out a few zubat. A few of the winged pokemon started attacking the treecko, getting hit with what seemed to be leech life. "Hammond make him dodge the attacks! Forget what you learned at school about battling and improvise!" I yelled desperatly. "I'm trying! treecko dodge those attacks and counter with a pound attack!" Treecko jumped left and right and smacked the zubats with his tail, slamming the pokemon into the cave's walls. "That's the stuff treecko! Now use bullet seed!" Hammond was always hyperactive and excited, but now he seemed serious and focussed. He wasnt thinking of anything else but winning this battle and protecting his friends. The zubat stopped with flying around us and regrouped as a large cloud in front of us. coming straight toward us. Hammond and the professor commanded their pokemon to launch attacks toward the cloud of pokemon, but they didnt seem to be stopping. "Geeooooooduuudee!" Large rocks were thrown toward the zubat cloud by a couple of geodude behind us, creating a thick cloud of smoke. "This is our chance! Everybody follow me!" Yelled the professor and started running toward the exit. Everyone followed him, but i was to slow. I was completely frozen by terror and certain of imminent death. Crossing my arms in front of my face to protect myself as best as i could, Preparing myself for the impact of all the zubats. "Sableye-lye!", "Maku-ku-hita!", "Machop!". The cries of different pokemon could be heard around me, and no zubats were felt on my body. As i opened my eyes, i saw that wild pokemon had jumped in front of me and wore of the zubats their attack, making them all retreat into a part deeper into the cave. I stood there, looking at the pokemon that had protected me. One was a machop, i had learned about machops in school and that he was a fighting type. The other fighting type was makuhita, But the third pokemon i couldnt really place. He was short and had dark purple fur, but he was covered in gems and minerals! The two fighting types made their way back into the cave, But the purple pokemon stood still and we both looked at each other. "Why did you protect me?" I asked toward the pokemon. "Lye-lye-sableye!" the pokemon said. I didnt have a clue what he was saying, but somehow i understood what he was trying to tell. "So the rest of the pokemon in the cave are being scared off by the zubats and i guess this was a way to scare them off." The pokemon nodded in agreement. Flabbergasted at what had happened just now i was suddenly jumped from behind and fell to the ground. once on the ground i was turned around and saw a familiar face. It was Hammond in tears talking about how he was certain i was dead, followed by the rest of the group surrounding me. Everyone started to ask questions to me at the same time, until the professor raised his voice to tell everyone to be quiet. "Dane, did you get hurt? Are you ok?" the professor asked calmly. "I'm fine professor, just a little confused about what happened, and why that pokemon saved me." The professor looked confused and looked around if he could find the pokemon i was talking about. "Did that sableye save you Dane?" the professor asked, pointing at the dark pokemon standing beside me. "Yeah professor, sableye and some other pokemon scared off the zubats before they could harm me." I said with a slight smile on my face. "Well then, you owe your life to that sableye. why dont you say thanks to him?" The professor laughed. everyone seemed to cheer up a bit after these troublesome events. i began to sit up and turned myself towards the sableye that stood beside me. "Thank you so much sableye!" I said while tearing up a bit. The sableye seemed glad and responded with a proud cry: "Sableye!". I didnt know how to react, This pokemon had saved my life and i just was so glad that he was so brave. "Well everyone, i think it's time to leave this cave!" the professor said to everyone, which was a great idea actually. As we all stood up and started to leave the cave, i heard something behind me. The sableye was still standing behind me. "Thanks again lil' guy, but im leaving now. Take care." i said to the pokemon and started to walk again. After a couple minutes of walking we were outside again. And again i heard something behind me. It was the sableye again, with a smug grin he spoke to me: "Lye-lye!". Confused as to why he was following me the professor interuppted. "I think he wants you to be his trainer Dane." the professor looked really serious, something i havent seen him do the whole trip. i looked down at sableye and he looked back at me. Somehow i knew what he was feeling, i knew that he wanted to come with me. the professor grabbed his bag and quickly grabbed another pokeball, handing it to me. "You know how one of these works? just throw it toward sableye and he should be captured!" he said. I looked at the pokeball in my hand, and with determination i threw the ball toward sableye. the ball bounced on his head and opened, transforming the pokemon before me into light and was sucked in the pokeball. the sphere fell to the ground and shook once. It shook twice. It shook again. Poof. For a second everyone was quiet and looked at the ball laying in the dirt. then Hammond jumped in the air with excitement. "You just caught your first pokemon Dane!" He yelled at me and shook me up. It finally dawned on me, I now owned my own pokemon! I started to grin and lifted my arms into the air and yelled together with Hammond. "I CAUGHT MY FIRST POKEMON!" while we were doing our little victory dance, the professor was talking to our teacher. "Those two boys are destined for something great, is it ok if i ask them to become trainers?" the teacher laughed, of course he was fine with them doing what they loved since they were little. In a week they would graduate, and they would leave almost immediatly on their journey he said to the professor. Birch walked towards the two boys celebrating. "Hammond, ive heard from your teacher that you and Dane want to become trainers. if that is true, then i ask of you two to visit me in my lab in littleroot town. if you can manage that journey, then i will let you become pokemon trainers. do we have a deal?" Me and Hammond were already excited. but now we were gonna explode! after a little while of excited hugging and jumping we answered the professors question. "Alright professor! when we graduate in a couple of days were gonna head straight toward littleroot, make sure the tea is ready!" the professor laughed at the determination of these 2 kids. "Ok then, now 1 final thing. Dane now has his sableye, but now you dont have a pokemon! how can you become a trainer without a pokemon?" the professor acted suprised. "How about i give you my treecko? You two already battled together against the zubat, so why not let you two become partners?" Hammonds jaw literally dropped to the floor. He was gonna get a pokemon?! He leaped toward the professor and hugged him. "Thank you so much professor! A million times thank you!" we all laughed and the professor handed Hammond treecko's pokeball. "why dont you both say hello to your new pokemon?" Hammond and I both threw out our pokemon and there they stood. My sableye and Hammond's treecko. "Now that that's settled, lets head home. i have a boat to catch, i will see you two very soon in my laboratory. goodbye everyone!" the professor waved towards us and started to run towards Dewford town. "Alright class, i think we all deserve a break after todays event. Tomorrow you will have the day off!" our teacher said exhausted. We all started to cheer of course, since that would mean no school and more time to spend with our new pokemon. Back in the city we all seperated our ways to head home, but Hammond stayed with me for a while since we lived relatively close to eachother. when it was time for him to take a turn he looked at me. "let's have great adventures together Dane!" he said with a smile. "We will Hammond!" i responded, and walked towards my house. "Moooooom im hooommeee! you have no idea what happened today!" i yelled at the doorstep. The rest of the day ended quickly, and with me writing this in the adventure journal my mom bought for me as a present. Perfect timing i guess. When me and Hammond go on an adventure, i will take this with me and record our entire journey to Littleroot town! But for now, Hammond and i need to train our new pokemon and get ready. There was gonna be a suprise at the end of the graduation, so im curious on what that is gonna be. For now im gonna go to bed, goodnight journal.

-Dane


	2. The Graduation

(Jesus Christ on a stick i took a long time to write this. For any readers that care or actually read this, well I mostly was tired and procrastinated. But I also tried to improve on my writing, so I hope it's way better than my first one. Enjoy! -Druiette)

Journal of Dane and Hammond, day 1

The graduation.

Dear journal,  
Today was the best schoolday ever, since it was the last one! We passed the exams months ago and now the children, parents, teachers and the actual graduates are invited for the graduation! We we're told there was going to be a party for everyone and a suprise at the end. And what a suprise that was! Let me tell you all about it!

It was a quiet and peaceful morning in Dewford, And I was still asleep of course. Today was my last day of school EVER, so was trying to spendt it well by getting some well deserved sleep. Next to my bed in a drawer of my nightstand, was my sableye that i caught a few days ago, sleeping in an open drawer with some blankets. Turns out sableye is as much of a sleeper as I am, But other people tend to wake up a bit earlier. "DANE, IM GOING TO WORK! ILL BE AT YOUR GRADUATION TONIGHT!" *BAM* and the door closed. Sableye and I sprang out of bed (A drawer in his case) at the loud noise my mother made. The bright sunlight was shining through the window into my room, which was a complete mess since me and sableye decided we needed to do some late night training and didn't want to go to bed yet. I looked down at sableye who was still half asleep on the floor, also having a hard time waking up. After a few minutes of us two being knocked out of our peace and quiet I decided to stand up and start the day. "Come on buddy, Let's get some breakfast for you." I said while stretching my arms and back. I shook sableyes head and he stood up as well. I looked at the clock on the wall. "10:13 huh, that's still pretty early. Let's get breakfast!" I said to myself. I started to walk downstairs and sableye followed me. Looking in the fridge i saw some leftover spaghetti from yesterday and some pokemon food for sableye. I got both out of the fridge and put the spaghetti into the microwave. While waiting on my breakfast i put some food on a plate for sableye, When suddenly. *RIIIIINNNNGGGG*, the doorbell rang. I walked to the door and opened it. "WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG DANE?" Hammond was waiting at the door and ran into my house. Hammond was a morning person, always up early and doing as much as possible in the morning. I on the other hand am the complete opposite. "Calm down man, i just woke up." I said with a slight irritation. "Today is graduation man! We have to get ready for tonight!" Hammond said still very loud. Atleast i was awake now. "Let me eat breakfast first, then we'll head into town." I said while heading back into the kitchen, where sableye sat looking confused at all the noise from the hallway. Hammond threw treecko's pokeball and his partner appeared. "Looks like we have to wait on these two snails treecko." Treecko sighed and headed toward sableye, probably trying to get some food.

After a while i had finished my breakfast and put on my clothes. It was sunny outside, so i put on my shorts and left my jacket at home. When we were outside i was wondering what Hammond's idea was for today. "So Dane, this is my plan for today: First we get clothes for our journey, then we get camping equipment and then we pack our bags for tomorrow." Hammond said excitedly. Wait what? Did he just say tomorrow? Was he planning on leaving this soon? "Hammond, we arent going to leave tomorrow right?" i asked confused by his statement. We stared at eachother in disbelieve. "Of course we are! dont you want to start off our yourney as soon as possible?" Hammond asked. Of course i wanted to start our journey, but tomorrow was way to fast. "Let's discuss this later, otherwise we wont have any time for shopping" i said. This was an excuse of course, i needed more time to answer that question. I'll think about all of this later. "If you say so, lets head into town Dane!" said Hammond excited as always. After a while we reached Dewford Town's shopping area. Hammond suddenly stopped and faced towards the store on our right. "Here it is Dane!" I looked at the store he meant, it was quite big and had a neon sign above it: "Aventur ch c" it said. "What is this store Hammond?" i asked him. Then i got my eardrums blown out. "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?" Hammond yelled in my ear. "YOU DON'T KNOW AVENTUR CH C?!" Well, i didn't. "It's only the BEST Kalosian boutique store in all of Hoenn!" Apparantly this store was a big deal, I didn't even know it excisted. We headed inside, and one of us was way more excited than the other. I looked around the store, and there was clothing everywhere! The store didnt seem as big on the outside, but it was just massive. How was i suppossed to choose an outfit for our journey? "Hello, can i help you?" there was a girl behind me that had asked this. I turned around and saw she had some kind of uniform on, so i guess she works here. "Yeah hi, I need a new outfit. But i'm not too good with fashion." The girl looked at me from head to toe and in mere seconds she responded: "I do have a few ideas for you, mind if i help you with picking something?" Oh great, since Hammond was nowhere to be found, probably searching for shirts or something. So this will have to do, and possible be even better than Hammond's reccomendations. She walked into the store and gestured that i needed to follow her, until we were at the fitting booths. "Wait here, I'll come back with some stuff for you to check out ok?" Before i could answer she already left and dissapeared between all the racks of clothing. The girl seemed really cute, but maybe this wasnt the right time to start flirting with someone since i was gonna leave tomorrow for a long journey. Not that i was confident in my flirting skills anyway. I was pretty certain that i wanted to leave tomorrow, but how would i tell my family and friends? Just ditch on them and leave a note? This still required more thought, but not for now. The girl returned with a stack of clothes for me to fit. She pushed the stack into my hands and literally pushed me into the fitting booth. "I want to see everything!" she yelled from outside the booth. Alot of time passed and alot of clothing was worn. So far i hadnt found anything i really loved. Most of it was way to trendy for me, I'm a simple guy who doesnt wear scarfs in the summer. "So why do you need a new outfit?" The girl asked. "Well, I'm gonna go on a journey with a friend tomorrow. and we're gonna do all the preperations the day before." i said realising how stupid it sounded. "That's cool! My father did the same thing when he was young. You two gonna challenge the gyms?" Challenge the gyms, the thought hadn't even crossed our minds yet. Why wouldnt we? We're gonna travel around Hoenn anyway? I had to discuss this with Hammond as soon as possible. "You've got a pokemon for your journey?" the girl asked again. I searched for my jeans and grabbed sableye's pokeball. "Is it ok if i release him in here?" I asked since some stores dont want pokemon, since they could break stuff or set stuff on fire. "Yes of course! Now show me!" The girl asked enthousiasticly. I stepped out of the fitting booth and threw sableye's pokeball on the ground and there he was, my pokemon. "He's so cute and fluffy! Can i pet him?" I said she could have some fun with him until I had found a piece of clothing i liked. "Do you have any pokemon?" I asked out of curiousity. She said her dad still has his roselia from back in the day. I've been in this booth for an eternity, atleast that's how it felt to me. But then i saw it, love at first sight. A grey and orange jacket which had my name written all over it. I put it on and stepped out of the booth. "This is it!" i said a little to loud. "It definetly does suit you, wanna go to the counter and pay?" the girl said with a hint of relief. I nodded and got some other shirts and pants i liked and we moved towards the counter. On our way over i looked through the rest of the store to find Hammond, and seeing him coming out another booth with a HUGE stack of clothing. "How are you gonna pay for that Hammond?" i asked in disbelief. Hammond seemed lost in thought and probably didnt think about the price of the clothing. "Oh don't worry, since this is your first adventure and i kind of like you two i'll give you 40% off." She said with a smile. Hammond leaned towards my ear and whispered: "I dont know what you did with her, but good job." We both laughed it off and payed for our new clothes. "Why dont you come with us on our journey, we could use some good company" Hammond suddenly asked. Luckily she took it as a joke and started laughing. "I would, but i cant leave town tomorrow like you guys are doing, maybe another time since ive got a job to do. And thats helping people like you picking out clothing." We started to pick up our bags full of clothing and leave the store. Before we had left the store i stopped Hammond and looked him in the eye: "Dude, we forgot to ask for her name and number." We both had a facepalm moment and returned to the counter and both gave our numbers and names. Apparantly her name was Isabel, a beautiful name. But it was time to go now, there was alot of shopping left to be done. We said goodbye and left the store. "Lead the way Hammond! Bring us to the camping store!" I commanded my friend, and we both started running towards our next stop.

After a few minutes of running in the hot sun we made it to the next store, which was called "Hikin' Hariyama". But why do we have to get camping gear if we can just stay at pokemon centers at night? And almost if Hammond had read my mind, he answered my question. "We can't always stay at pokemon centers, since i've read there are only some pokemon centers outside of the big cities and those cities are too far apart to travel to in 1 day. So we've gotta go camping!" Oh boy, the answer I didn't want to hear. I've always dispised camping, since when i do it it's always raining or super cold. So i was not looking forward to this, but i guess it will have to be done. "We'll need a tent probably and 2 sleeping bags, or do you have one at home?" asked Hammond who apparantly did some research. Of course i didn't have a sleeping bag at home, well technically i had one but the last time it fit me was back when i was seven. So it was time to pick one out. We went out and got ourselves 2 sleeping bags to stay warm inside of the tent. But now we needed a tent, hopefully not a heavy one since we'll have to carry it on the way. "Oi lads, you need a tent right?" We turned around and there was a man, almost twice our size! Well maybe that's an overstatement, but he was really big. "Hi im Matt! I own this store! It looks like you need a tent!" apparantly this mountain was named Matt. We told him that we were going on a journey and needed a tent (as light as possible). "Well lads, i've got just the thing for you! Just follow me!" The giant turned around and walked to the back of the store, us two following close behind him. When we arrived at the back of the store there stood an iglo shaped tent with pokeball colours on it. It was quite large for a camping tent, could we actually carry this on the road? Matt said he was gonna explain how it worked, so we listened: "So you two lads see this tent? Looks pretty big right? How are gonna gonna fold such a big tent on the road? Why dont you press that button on the top lad?" What was the trick here? We both looked slightly confused at each other and I moved my arm to the top of the tent, where the "button" was just like a normal pokeball. I pressed the button and the whole tent starts to twist and turn at incredible speed. After a couple of seconds had passsed the tent had reduced itself into a sphere, almost like a pokeball with the colour pattern on it. "That was certainly surprising Matt, this is perfect for our journey! we'll take it!" Hammond was apparantly exited about this tent, not that i wasn't baffled by the technology of the tent. I just dont get excited about camping. We payed for the tent and said goodbye to giant Matt. "So according to your schedule we are going home to pack now right? I assume you have your things packed already?" Hammond laughed at my remark and answered "You know me too well Dane, let's go back to your place. Wanna race?" I sighed and talked about how we're not kids anymore and cant just run in public, until i took a head start. I wasn't going to lose to him before our journey even begon. "Ahw you son of a bitch I KNEW IT!" I heard Hammond yell from behind me, eating my dust as he should.

"FIRST" Hammond and I yelled at the same time as we both touched my frontdoor. "Looks like we dont have a winner yet" I said gasping for air. We headed inside and got ourselves something to drink. Sableye and Treecko were released from their pokeballs and got some food, it had been a while since breakfast. Wait, how late was it actually? I looked at the clock and it was 6 o'clock. "HAMMOND! WE'RE GONNA BE LATE AND WE DONT HAVE ANYTHING TO WEAR YET! WE'RE SCREWED!" I yelled while panicking. The graduation was at 7, and the school wasnt that close to my house and what were we going to wear? I don't have anything remotely nice to wear. "Relax man, just look in your closet." Said Hammond with a grin. I ran upstairs and opened my closetdoors. "HAMMOND HOW DID Y- YOU SNEAKY- WHAT?!" I yelled so he could hear me. In my closet hung 2 tuxedo's. How he did it, i dont know. Do i care? Not really. All that matters right now is all about making in to school. Normally i dont care as much about being late, but being late at your own graduation with most of my friends and family is a little bad mannered. I ran downstairs with the tuxedo's and threw Hammond his tuxedo. I told him to put it on and get ready. As i put on my tuxedo i noticed there were 2 bowties. Maybe this was Hammond's and he didn't put his bowtie with the tuxedo. "Hey Hammond, you've got a bowtie right?" I yelled throught the bathroom door. "Ye man, the other one is for our pokemon! If we have to look sharp they might as well!" Oh Hammond always manages to suprise doesnt he. After putting on my tuxedo and doing minimalistic effort on my hair I wet over to Sableye and put him on his bowtie. Sableye looked confused at the piece of clothing but didn't care that much. Sableye and I waited for Hammond to get finished with his dress-up game, which lasted about 10 minutes longer than mine. He came back to the kitchen with his tuxedo on and Treecko was wearing his little bowtie, it looked way too cute but we didn't have time for that right now. "Come on lets go, we have 20 minutes left!" Something i disliked about Hammond was that he took way too long about getting dressed. Apparantly he "styles his hair" in those 10 minutes. I still don't believe him about that. We ran to the door with our pokemon following right behind us. When we were outside I looked at my watch, 6:45. "Were gonna have to make a run for it Hammond, 15 minutes left let's go!" We nodded at each other and our pokemon let out a cry of determination. Then we made a run for it.

"Come on Dane keep going we're almost there! yelled Hammond. We were running for about 20 minutes straight now and both of us were carrying our pokemon on our backs, since their tiny legs can only last for so long. I looked down the path and saw the gates of our school. "There it is! Let's keep it going Hammond!" I picked up Hammond's pace again and we finally made it to the gate. I tried to open the gate but it seemed to be closed. "Agh! It's closed! What do we do now?" I said while being exhausted from running. "I have an idea, don't worry. Treecko, climb over the gate and get someone to open it!" Treecko nodded and climbed over the gate. "Now we wait until treecko finds someone! Gives us a moment to catch our breath! Hammond said while still panting. "Both of those are great ideas Hammond, seems you didnt forget your brain functions in the bathroom" I said mockingly. "Are we having this conversation again? Look I jus-" And Hammond got interrupted by the gate finally opening, and saw the janitor had opened the door. "The last day of school, and you two are still late. Come on quickly, everyone is waiting for you two!" We thanked the janitor and rushed to the schoolyard. There was quite a crowd, consisting of friends, family, and teachers. At the back stood a podium with a microphone stand, with an impatient teacher waiting for us. We hurried to the stage, apologising on the way there and got up on stage. "Well well well, you two certainly took your time. I'll start talking and giving you two diploma's etc, then you two can have the mic understood?" We both agreed to this idea and our teacher picked up the mic from its stand. "Hello everyone, sorry we're starting so late but it seems our honored guests decided to take a little while longer than expected. Now these two boys, well almost men. Are one word: Passionate. Being the only 2 people to finish up this year, unlike their 2 classmates. Even though theyre late most of the time, they always seem to suprise me. One time it's their knowledge, the other time it's saving us from a horde of zubat. But they aren't alone anymore. Since a few days, these 2 have their own pokemon! I'm sure they will have great experiences with their Treecko and Sableye! Now without further introduction, it's time to close this chapter for Dane and Hammond and start a new one. What that chapter will be, that will be their decision. Now here are your diploma's!" The crowd clapped and our teacher handed us our diploma's. This was the best feeling i've ever felt. Finally no more school! "Now i'll let them have the mic!" after these words we were handed the microphone. Hammond grabbed it before i could and started talking. "Hello everyone! Thank you for coming! Sorry again for being late, dressing nice costs time!" The crowd laughed at the joke and Hammond leaned towards me and whispered: "Luckily the crowd isn't as tough as i expected" and we laughed it off. "We are so glad to finally be done with school. It gives us more time to do usefull stuff, like spending time with our pokemon. Now we have a little announcement to make. Dane and I decided that we'll leave tomorrow for our adventure!" The crowd gasped and murmered a bit. "This is bad, couldnt you have done it a bit more subtle?" I whispered to Hammond. He told me to not worry about it, but of course I was worried. "We want to start our own adventure! Meet new pokemon! Explore the entire region! Get stronger with our pokemon! We don't want to live the boring live of a fisherman, at least not yet. We have everything packed already, and you're not gonna stop this dreamteam!" I admired Hammond's passion sometimes. While I was more timid and collected I was certainly jealous of these kind of speeches. The way he got fired up, His determination, wow. The crowd clapped at the speech and we saw 2 people stand up and walk towards the stage, our moms. We hopped off stage and waited to hear waht they had to say. "You two could have atleast talked to us about these plans! We'll have to think about it, You two go back to your speech" And they walked back to our seats. We climbed back on the stage and Hammond handed me the mic. "I'm sure you have to say stuff as well, go for it!" I didnt like talking in front of large crowds, but i'll have to do this I guess. "Being late was his fault, let's start with that." The crowd laughed again, what a relief. "I am certainly glad that you are all here, to celebrate with us that we're moving on to some sort of adulthood. And i want to thank our teachers for being great to us over the years, give them some applause!" The teachers stood up and did some sort of bow, then sat down again while being applauded at. I handed the mic back to our teacher and he started talking again. "Well give these two some applause! Now we have a little suprise for you two. Since you two have your own pokemon now, why dont you show us all what you have learned at school about battling!" The teacher pointed at the field besides the yard, and gestured that we should go there. Hammond stood on one side, with me across from him on the other side of the field. The crowd stood around the field and cheered. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around. My mom stood behind me and wished me good luck, then moving back in the crowd again. "Wait, who's gonna be the referee?" I heard Hammond yell. It was quiet for a while since our school referee wasnt here today. "Well, if nobody wants to do it I might as well." I recognised this voice but couldnt place it, then i remembered. A man walked from the crowd unto the side of the field. He has blue spikey hair, and was super buff, while wearing some sort of sports clothes. Now i remembered, it was Brawly! The Dewford town gym leader! I only saw him once while on a school trip to his gym, but that was ages ago. "Both trainers shall use 1 pokemon each, and the battle will end as soon as one of the pokemon will be unable to battle. I, Brawly, the Dewford town gym leader will be the referee. Are the two trainers ready! "Yes!" Hammond and I shouted at the same time. "Then bring our your pokemon!" Sableye and Treecko walked upon the field, recovered from the long run here. Suddenly there was music coming from the speakers, while i was certain those things only stood there for the show and didnt actually work. "It's a school custom to play this music at a graduation battle, now please continue!" (the music playing is the OrAs rival battle theme, fyi. link for people who want *maximum reading experience* watch?v=JPbl6o9mGEs) "Well trainers, since you are both ready. LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!" and the crowd started cheering.

"Treecko use bullet seed!" commanded Hammond and treecko shot a barrage of green bullets at sableye. I was suprised by the sudden attack and panicked a little. "Sableye move aside!" Sableye ran to the right and dodged the bullet seed by an inch. "Good dodge sableye, now use scratch!" His paw turned white and he ran towards Treecko. "Treecko hit him with pound as well!" I certainly didnt expect Hammond to be so confident, I guess he and treecko did have some experience in battling already. Treecko leaped at sableye and pounded sableye, but treecko didnt hit him. His paw went through sableye and he slammed it on the ground, making it so sableye had a clear shot. Sableye raised his arm and scratched Treecko right across his face, blowing him backwards. "WHAT! HOW DID I NOT HIT HIM!" yelled Hammond in confusion. "Did you forget everything we learned already Hammond? Normal attacks can't hit ghost type pokemon like sableye." Said our teacher to Hammond. "Great job Sableye! Did you forget about the matchups already Hammond?" I said with a grin, but to be honest i forgot about it as well. Let's just call it a fortunate coincidence. Treecko stood up again and was ready to move. "Well if we cant hit you with normal type attacks, I'll just hit you with grass type attacks! Treecko use bullet seed again!" Treecko was much closer now, so Sableye had no chance at dodging it. Sableye put his arms in front of his face to block the attack, but it didnt help much. He took all the pellets and fell to the ground. "Oh no! Sableye are you ok?" Sableye raised his right arm to show that he was still ok, and got back up. "Since you can't hit me with pound, I'll just come close again! Sableye use scratch! He ran towards Treecko and i could see panick on Hammond's face, How are you going to deal with this friend? No, Hammond was more than a friend now. He is my rival. "Treecko dodge it!" yelled Hammond and Treecko jumped to the side, dodging sableyes scratch attack. "Now I've got you! Treecko use bullet seed!" Oh boy, not good. Treecko jumped into the air and barraged Sableye with more green pellets. "Sableye! Jump up and use scratch!" I rather not let Sableye take damage, but this is the a chance I'll have to take. Sableye jumped towards Treecko and got hit by the bullet seed. Come on Sableye, you can pull through buddy! I saw that he took the pellets across his face, and he wasn't going to pull through. Come on Dane, quick thinking! "Sableye! Grab his leg and slam him on the ground!" Since he can't get higher, I'll make Treecko go lower! I'm a genius! Sableye got hold of Treecko's leg and threw him down on the ground, leaving Treecko defenceless. "Now is the time to strike! Use scratch!" That moment felt like an eternity, I was so fired up! The feeling of friendship between us, catching Hammond off guard, perhaps having the pleasure of defeating him. Wait, was that a drop of sweat rolling across my face? Are pokemon battles suppossed to be this intens? I suppose it could have been the atmosphere, being surrounded by friends and family cheering us on, the music playing in the background. The music being played was quite beautiful in my opinion, it reminded me of friendship, the bond with me and sableye, the new rivalry with Hammond. After this long thought time seemed to speed up again, and Sableye fell toward Treecko with his claws ready to strike Treecko. Then they collided, and a cloud of dust appeared. Everything was silent, and we were all waiting on the dust to settle. My heart was beating so fast, I couldn't even imagine what Hammond felt like, since this could be the end. The dust settled, and the battle had been decided. Treecko layed on the ground, with Sableye standing beside him. "THE BATTLE HAS BEEN DECIDED, TREECKO IS KNOCKED OUT, DANE AND SABLEYE WIN!" yelled Brawly. I couldn't believe it, I had defeated Hammond! Everyone around us started to applaud, and I was hugged from behind by many arms. "I WON! I DID IT!" After all the commotion had ended a bit we all went back to the yard to have some drinks and party, but I had to talk to Hammond first. I ran up to him still standing at the same spot he had been since he lost. "Well played sir" I said and reached my hand out to him, and Hammond accepted my handshake. "Never again... Never again I will let you catch me off guard like that. AND I WILL WIN NEXT TIME!" Hammond seemed to have cheered up, so we hugged and got back to the yard.

After the party, on the way home.  
Me, Hammond and our mothers were walking back home and it was awfully quiet. They had said they will think about our journey, so me and Hammond were quite nervous. And then my mother started to speak: "You know, I had the same plans as you did when I was young. Travel the region and become the contest queen of Hoenn, but then i met your father and I couldn't bring my dreams into reality. Because i didn't, why should I also forbid you two from going on a journey. So as far as I'm concerned, you can go." Hammond and I looked at each other and we turned our nervous faces into bright smiles. "REALLY!? THANK YOU SO MUCH!" We yelled in sync. "YOU BETTER GET YOUR THINGS READY DANE, BECAUSE WE'RE LEAVING TOMORROW!" Hammond yelled excited. The trip home continued to be merry and alot of jumping up and down. So tomorrow is going to be the big day, I'll better finish writing this and get some sleep. Knowing Hammond he could be at my doorstep at 4 o clock in the morning. So Tomorrow we will leave for Littleroot town, to the professor's lab! So goodnight journal.

-Dane


End file.
